I in Texas learnt that "Tex-Mex" is NOT "fast-food", at least not necessarily. It is the cuisine of Mexicans in Texas who celebrate Mexican cuisine by adapt it a bit to Texan style.

Taco Bell is not Tex-Mex but Taco-Bell, which is a trademark product line. It is not bad really but of course standardized "chain-food".

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Neither does the point that they did it in Texas make it Texan food

This isn't really "chili". In fact, most of the time picadillo doesn't have any chiles in it although it is sometimes used as the stuffing for chiles. But I guess it could be a regional thing.

Chiles are the dominant ingredient in "chili".

"Chili" isn't always "hot" either.

While that sounds "romantic", it's not what was meant be fast food. And I feel odd to explain it when I think you clearly know what I mean. But anyways...food that can be served on order in a fast period of time.

It's not as if I am singling out fast food as Mexican alone. In fact any kind of food can be fast, if prepared the right way in advance, and made available for quick reheating later.

But just because you have explained it takes for ever in Mexico for people to get back to work, doesn't mean that the food is prepared any slower south of the Rio Grande then north of it.

There are a lot of cultures that have extended lunches, and decisively slow work hours, that doesn't mean that is Mexican specific.

Tex Mex is not a corrupted form of Mexican food, it's the proper form Of Texas-Mexican food. We are allowed to create food in Texas with the inclusion of the ingredients and the cultures of the area. Or would you prefer we did something Tex French?
Yes Taco Bell is a bastardization. Shame on Taco Bell for creating a menu of food, that people like, and actually selling it to those people. They should be selling bells and not TACOS!!!

I don't think there will be any palate bowing...I have been to Mexico. While I personally like authentic Mexican food, as any good entrepreneur knows in the restaurant business, worldwide, you have less likely a chance of selling what ever is authentic(especially by either trying to force to down people's necks, or worse"educating them"), as opposed to menus designed to appease local tastes.

I love how you constantly repeat how "gringos" will never understand not be what it is like to be Mexican, yet, we have to bow to your cuisine. though we clearly will never get it. Strange maybe?

So we are falsely calling a recipe something you believe is actually not our recipe? You think your people are they only ones to take a dried pepper and make a ground beef concoction? Guess again.

Apparently you are un aware that us, not Americans, not North Americans, not US citizens, but us "gringos" have no actual cooking style, technique, imagination, products, or differentiating cultures of our own. And any kind of cuisine we come up with that slightly resembles yours must be a flat out copy re-named to what we want to call it.

You are wrong. Have a nice day.

chili con carne and what yankees call chili are in no way the same thing.

It like what you might find here or the UK called BBQ and then going to Memphis...worlds apart.

They're native to the middle east/Persia, not Mexico. Introduced by the Spanish to Mexico.

...except when it's "con queso".

(which is another whole can of worms)

Oooo!. Touchy, aren't we? A little bit of reading comprehension might be in order, my gringo friend. Get a beer, chillax, and fight with me ma&ana, ok?

I think when you come out and blast people you want to call gringos, and when some one has a response to it, it doesn't mean I am not well read, well traveled, nor well experienced in cooking, it means I don't agree with you because your tone is coming from one of assumption. And I don't like being called Gringo, I certainly don't call you a .........(insert un pleasant American name for a Mexican here)........

And, again, you are wrong.

Yes Chile's a peppers. We have a dish called Chile, that incorporated them into a beef mixture. Chile can also be solely with beans, and there fore vegetarian. It's what happens when you have a culture as diverse as in America that you have all sorts of people experimenting and evolving their food cultures, quite possibly people from our side come up with food creations, that we also name, without first sending couriers across the Mexican countryside, asking if we can name it, what we have thought up. Wether it has anything to do with Spanish, Native "Indian", Chinese, or otherwise.

Maybe what we really need to do is totally remove Spanish from our country, so there won't ever be any mis conceptions about food types. And in the future we can call it "Ground Beef and Beans with added Chiles", but that, and exempting other people's would just be too dull.

Or we can do like the Neapolitan people tried to sue for over the use of the word Pizza. They wanted to make the use of the word Pizza only possible for those that came from from Neapolitan. And if you made a Pizza anywhere say, in San Antonio or in Durango (MX), you could only call it "Flat bread with melted cheese made in the Neapolitan style". But again, that idea is just silliness.

I think I missed the end of that last line...did you say you want to fight me? Or am I just mis reading it? What is ma & ana?

You'd be surprised.

My basic chile (red or green) uses equal parts meat and chiles if using fresh, or 10:1 if using dried, has no beans, and does not use ground meat (well, if I'm lazy I'll sometimes use the 8mm disk, but generally I cube it by hand, id I could find a disk with 12mm holes I'd be happier to use it).

Now, what mid-westerners refer to as chile is another matter.

Tom

By weight or volume?

Weight, with the fresh roasted and peeled, and the weight of the dry measured dry, and not re-hydrated.

Tom

New mexican restaurant opened in Zürich:

http://www.elluchador.ch/

No Tex Mex!
The owner grew up in Mexico.

Article in Züritipp (German)
http://www.zueritipp.ch/home/home/ta...tory/19837409/

trpG English
http://therealpickygourmet.com/2012/...trasse-zurich/

ronorp English
http://www.ronorp.net/zurich_en/clas...uchador.247699

I have to say, since I opened this thread, I learned a lot about Mexican food! Thank you so much for allowing me to go to bed less stupid!

Gotta say I'm pretty damn excited to try El Luchador. Don't really care if it's 'real' mexican or bastardized chinese-mex, as long as they have tacos like you can get on the west coast of the US ... those soft ones, al pastor, gawd, lengua even, I don't care, so very, very tasty.

Last time I got mexican food in CH it was that chain (in bassersdorf maybe?) that served me a 'burrito' filled with diced pork chops, bell peppers and something like melted emmentaler. Spiced with Knorr. Most bizarre mexican experience ever.

As a former resident of southern arizona, all lines between mexican and US are really, really, blurry anyway..

awesome, I'm glad I decided to do a quick EF browse today. Thanks for finding this! menu's a little light, but if he's authentic it's prolly good!

same here, I'm from Tucson, can't wait to try the tacos at El Luchador!

What a great description I found here "bastardized chinese-mex": So far the restaurants I have been here in Switzerland are bastardized chinese-mex, like "El Mexicano" in Bern... I can not understand how the people can eat that!

also former tucsonan reporting in! Hehe. Quite the change to balmy switz eh.

I keep my fridge stocked with mexican sauces from EL Maiz on josephstrasse. Their mexican corn mean makes excellent homemade tamales, corn tortillas, etc, if you have the time, btw.

oh, the chinese-mex was a reference to some 'mexican' restaurants in NYC that were (this was maybe 10 years ago) run by chinese... resulting in some very interesting, if not particularly authentic, flavor combos.

I guess I just want tasty, or at least original. The one is Bassersdorf is neither..